On April 8th I self-published my second novel: The Filter Trap. I purposefully didn’t promote the book (or even mention it was up for sale to friends) for nearly a month so I could establish a control period to gauge the effectiveness of later promotions. When the Kindle promotion (free downloads) launched I advertised it […]
Fireworks on the Hill
On July 4th Sam and I hiked up the hill behind our condo to watch the fireworks. The part of the trail that connects our property to the ridge line was only dug out late last year after I borrowed equipment from facilities manager and started it myself. After cutting through the first twenty feet and […]
Trekonomics
Before the untimely demise of SFSignal, I had just started reviewing books for the blog (a writing achievement for me!). They only published one of my reviews before John decided to shutter the site as an active source of sci-fi information. However, kind-hearted as he is, he sent me a few of the books that […]
The (un)Importance of Design
The website is dead, long live the site! I began this blog in 2001 after moving out of the Ohio State University dorms. I looked like that guy in that picture with the homemade Weezer shirt, obviously taken before Weezer broke my heart. I was blogging posts before I could buy beer during the wild […]
Bavaria
On Wednesday we took the S Bahn to the Munich airport and waited over an hour to get our rental car. During the tram ride, my nose had started to run, and it would only get worse as the day (and week) went on. By the time we were shooting down the autobahn in an […]
Munich
Memorial day morning we took a water taxi out of Venice to the airport. At the airport, we waded through a frustrating clusterfuck (yep, more cursing in Italy) of late, disorganized, and rude employees at every point in our journey. We didn’t have a gate or the ability to even check in until an hour […]
Venice
After a four-hour train ride, we walked out of the train station to see a rain-clogged city of canals. We bought tickets in the rain (why are the ticket machines not inside the terminal?) for a public water taxi to our hotel. After checking in we walked down the narrow streets looking for dinner. We […]
When in Rome
After arriving at the main train station in Rome we went to a “tourist information booth” and were told what I can only imagine translates to: “Fuck off!” Welcome to Rome. Our friends who live in Italy (one born there) admitted the country has an antagonistic attitude toward tourists. Can’t live with them (tourists are everywhere […]
Florence
In Florence, we checked in and headed to the duomo where we ascended the 400+ steps for a breezy view of the city. We then ambled toward the Ponte Vecchio, stopping for dinner along the way (ossobuco, risotto, and very good d’asti). Before we reached the river we picked up gelato and ate it as […]
Milan
We woke at 6am on Monday to catch the early trains to Milan. After checking into our hotel we set out on foot to explore the city. First, we visited the inside and roof of the duomo. Then we walked to the Scala Opera Museum but decided not to buy a ticket as the theater […]